LONDON - Reform UK, the right-wing populist party led by Mr Nigel Farage, looks set to emerge as a new force in British politics, with an election exit poll on July 4 predicting it would win 13 seats, and early results showing it was squeezing the Conservative vote.

Mr Farage, a driving force behind Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, only entered the election race last month, a move that caused shockwaves in a Conservative Party that was already far adrift of centre-left Labour.

In the first three results to be declared, Labour won comfortably, with Reform finishing in second place and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives pushed into third.

It took 29 per cent and 27 per cent of the vote in the first two counts, prompting Mr Farage to say: “That is way more than any possible prediction or projection, it’s almost unbelievable.”

Mr Farage’s party aims to shake up British politics as Ms Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is doing in France by taking a tough line on immigration, demanding that illegal migrants arriving in small boats from France are sent back.

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